The Badger Lord
by Selonianth
Summary: What if Harry had a friend when he was younger and hadn't been so alone? Hufflepuff!Harry Powerful!Harry
1. Chapter 1

**The Badger Lord**

**Summary: **A Plot Bunny of Rorschach's Blot from his story "Odd Ideas". What if Harry had a friend when he was young and wasn't quite as alone. Hufflepuff!Harry

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. The idea isn't even totally mine I'm just trying to explore it.

A slam of the greenhouse doors followed by the sound of wood on the floor made Pomona Sprout look up from the venomous tentacular to see the grizzled auror Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody looking at her from across her greenhouse and walking in her direction. The expression on his face was not one of happiness or grouchiness but rather one of sadness.

"Pomona," Moody said slowly. "I think you need to sit down."

"What is it mad eye," questioned the squat herbology professor.

"Just have a seat," the scarred man commanded. "I'm afraid your hunch about young Potter was true. Two years ago, Potter . . . Harry befriended a shy girl in his neighborhood. The two of them were almost inseparable, each the other's only friend."

"So what happened?" Sprout asked with growing dread.

"The girl came from a large family," Moody continued. "She was the only daughter and the youngest child . . . because of this she suffered quite a bit of abuse. One night . . . one night they got a bit too rough and she was badly injured. Rather then take her to the hospital, her father buried her in the basement."

"No . . ." Pomona whispered her horror evident.

"Harry . . . Harry came to their front door looking for her for three days before he stopped believing it when they told him that his friend was sick, or had moved to a relatives house. It's not clear what excuses they used." Moody said mechanically as if reciting from memory. "On the fourth night he made his way into the house and was somehow able to find . . . to find what remained of his only friend in the world."

"Alastor don't tell me . . ."

"Harry was the only thing to leave that house alive," the old auror said quietly. "Fire engines arrived an hour later to find the house in flames. Inspector said that large amounts of accelerant had been poured around the beds and he also noted that several of the exits had been blocked. The body of the young girl had been removed from the house prior to the inferno and carefully wrapped in a worn blanket."

"That poor boy," Sprout gasped her Hufflepuff nature reaching out to him.

"There's just a bit more Pomona," Alastor said gently. "When the emergency services arrived, they found Harry sitting on the lawn cradling the girl's body. He told the first fireman not to bother entering the house as he'd stopped hearing screams several minutes before and suspected that everyone inside was dead. Due to his age and the circumstances surrounding the crime, Harry was given a psychological evaluation. They noted that the circumstances surrounding the crime were unlikely to occur again and ruled that Harry was no threat to society."

"Where is he now?" Pomona asked the grizzled auror quietly.

Moody sighed sadly and looked at the plant she was tending. "Word is he's on the train right now turned eleven just a month ago and is coming to Hogwarts for his schooling," he then looked right to her.

"I'm actually a little worried about the little punk" said moody as he looked to his old friend from the last war. He knew the hufflepuff would do anything she could to make sure Harry had a good Hogwarts life. Nodding to her in a goodbye he walked out and away from the building he had to get back to his home.

----------------------------------------------Back with Sprout-----------------------------------------

Pomona nodded in return to the auror as he left and turned her attention back to her plant. Her mind was racing trying to reason with herself to figure out why Albus would put young Harry in such a home but she simply couldn't come up with a worthy explanation on why the so called greatest wizard of the age would put a young child with people like the Dursleys. Even Minerva was extremely unhappy with the old wizard having gone so far as to say he had lost his touch.

Pomona had decided she would do her best to get young Harry in her house. First though she needed to call a council meeting. The Hufflepuff council would decide whether or not Harry was truly that which this new history made Pomona Sprout believe.

Hearing the loud horn of the train blare she rushed from the room. Casting a spell under her breath Hufflepuffs from around the school past and present became alert even those that were asleep and began heading to their fireplaces or apparating to a house that had floo powder if they were out. One way or another the Hufflepuffs were on their way. The Hufflepuff council had been called.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Badger Lord**

**Summary: **A Plot Bunny of Rorschach's Blot from his story "Odd Ideas". What if Harry had a friend when he was young and wasn't quite as alone. Hufflepuff!Harry

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. The idea isn't even totally mine I'm just trying to explore it.

Authors Note: Firstly I'd like to say thanks to all those that actually reviewed *glares at the non-reviewers*, particularly LivingInTheClouds and Anniria for drawing my attention back to this story at just the right time for me to have a stroke of inspiration.

~~~In a corner office at the Ministry~~~

Amelia Bones was sorting through the mountains of paperwork that clouded her desk. It was just after 10 O'clock when she felt something she hadn't felt in years. The calling of a Hufflepuff Council broke her concentration. Something was happening that required the attention of the senior members of the Council. Whipping her wand at the stack of paper on her desk it quickly and obediently sped into a shelving unit and organized itself.

After this was done she turned to the door and hurried to the nearest apparition point In her hurry she almost knocked over three new interns, two experienced aurors, and succeeded in knocking over Dolores Umbridge…. the last of whom she may or may not have been aiming at. When later questioned very few would actually identify her dash for the apparition point, whether this was or wasn't because of the fact that many were Hufflepuff and those that weren't were distracted heavily by those that were was up for debate and, as she popped away she thought, 'Thank heavens for small mercies.'

~~~Somewhere Near St Ottery Catchpole~~~

Amos was busy sending missive's to the french and bulgarian ambassador's about the event that was to happen hopefully within the next three or four years when he felt The Call reverberate through his mind. Hurriedly finishing the missive's he sent them off and with barely a pause was upon his fireplace and shouting "_Hufflepuff Court_" just as the flames flashed emerald and he vanished.

Countless scenes like this were occurring around Britain with people in the middle of their job or watching their kid. All answered Hufflepuff's call. Slowly the council was assembled. Some who had kids in Hufflepuff and thus were to know of the council meeting, others who were wondering where their mom or dad went whether because they were too young to enter Hogwarts or they weren't Puffs.

Once everyone had arrived in Hufflepuff dungeon they turned to the fireplace in the large room and Sprout spoke to the painting of Helga Hufflepuff "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus". The painting smiled and the fireplace grew and an opening appeared in the back. The council members who hadn't had one of these high council meetings were informed by other members that attempting to access the chamber without being the head of house would bring Hufflepuff's enforcers running. Some of whom were also on the council.

After they entered the council room which was resplendent in the blue and gold of Hufflepuff House newer council members marvelled at the room. One long curved desk sat upon a slightly raised dias that formed a half circle around a lone desk facing them. Surrounding the council room were dozens of portraits of Hufflepuffs past. Each had been the head of the council during their own time. Each served to inform the current head of goings on that influenced the council or things that interested them. Quickly though the new members got over the awe at the chamber they moved up into their seats on the dias.

Pomona Sprout, who'd summoned the meeting sat at the lone desk in the center of the room looking up at the council of Hufflepuffs Past. "I suppose you'd all like to know why I summoned you all here with such an urgent meeting of the council?" She paused looking around at the assembled alumni. "Alastor Moody brought it to my attention of a young boy on the train at this very moment who did something extremely admirable of a Hufflepuff a couple years ago. His friend had been abused to death at the hands of her family and his loyalty to her caused his magic to go out of control setting their house on fire after he got her, wrapped in a blanket, out of the basement where she'd been hidden. The rest of the family perished in the blaze, none of them innocent of the crime for which they died."

"This is a very inspirational story that I'll be sure to tell my grandkids but why does this boy deserve a full meeting of the council?" Amelia Bones, chairwoman of the council, asked with a skeptical look on her face. She'd been almost done with her paperwork damnit!

"Because that boy is Harry James Potter. We all owe him more than we could ever repay and we all know it isn't over. What he did for that girl even after she was dead shows that he'll be one of us. No doubting that. The reason this was called is because he must be protected!" Pomona declared boldly as she looked up at the rest of the council, most of whom didn't understand what that meant.

"How is that any different than what we normally do with each other. We protect each other because we're hufflepuffs and that means we're family already. How is this different?" Amos Diggory asked from his seat on the council.

"Because Harry Potter isn't the average puff. He can't just hide in the background like most of us have and those of us that don't... Well. Tell me Amelia, of all the aurors under your command how many believe you were a puff and not a Slyth or a Gryff?" Sprout asked pointedly.

"Probably... three, all puffs themselves," Amelia admitted. It wasn't that she was ashamed of being a puff, far from it. Her non-formal clothing all reflected her house pride. It was more that Puffs were seen as the trod upon house of the british wizarding world and few could correlate her with that image so instead believed she had to be lying about her house. This in turn led to a betting pool on which of the increasingly unlikely reasons she would attempt to hide her true house from everyone.

"Yet no one will be able to do that with Harry Potter, not only because his house will be known to every man woman in child throughout britain by the morning after sorting if not sooner but because no mage who's magic reacted in such a specifically violent way will simply fade into Hufflepuff like we try to get our first years to do to protect them from being singled out. Therefore he needs active protection." Sprout vocalized. It was a truth of hufflepuff. In order to protect the first years, particularly those without another form of protection from the bullies in both Griffindor and Slytherin, they encouraged them to become as anonymous as possible to stop singling out and it worked because if you couldn't even remember a kid's name how are you supposed to pick on him other than about being a puff and well... they instilled an immunity against that quickly on with house pride.

Amelia Bones thought about this for a moment, what Pomona said was accurate enough indeed. Harry wouldn't be able to hide as a puff simply because of the scar on his forehead. Still, what could they do about it without revealing the depth of the Huffleuff Conspiracy? There wasn't anything they could do except... "You don't mean..."

"I do. There's nothing else _to_ be done if one thinks about it now is there? He cannot hide, so he must become a champion, a fighter, and a Lord. I'm suggesting activating Protocol Badger Lord for use in the protection and advancement of Harry James Potter."

Amelia Bones looked down the line familiar faces looking back. Ludo Bagman and Amos Diggory, Poppy Pomfrey, and the others of the council looked back both with a look of conviction on their face, a bizarre appearance on the former Team England Beater's face. Looking back down to Pomona, the head of house had been her own head of house at that, and nodded. "Very well, we, the Council of Hufflepuff approve the Badger Lord Protocol's use in the instance of Harry James Potter."

"Good. Amelia, Ludo, I trust you two can handle the legal aspects with the Ministry?" Pomona asked receiving an instant nod from the council's high level ministry agents. "And Amos, you'll be able to get your friends in Gringotts to... discover, the correct connections to the right families?" Again a quick solemn nod was her answer. "Very well, I'll task his cousin and several of the truly trustworthy upper years with beginning the various training's he'll require... I need not point out that should this work properly this will be an... entertaining seven years at least."


End file.
